Homemade gifts!

[Ea134]

Hello

i know there’s always mixed opinions on homemade gifts. 🙈however, obviously this year is going to be a tough one!

I am thinking of making my own candles and wine as gifts for people. I have a cricut so can make lovely labels for it. Just wondering if anyone has done similar or has any other ideas that could be made?

😊

Ha ha just checked in and the crafters are still cheerily resolute in their delusion that everyone ‘loves’ all the random and bizarre stuff they make despite people telling them that the recipients are bare faced lying. I’d wager that the ones that aren’t lying are just overly polite.

Please. If you think someone deserves a gift, unless you make stuff for a living, and it’s sought after like bespoke furniture, expensive art or designer gold jewellery then just put a bit of thought into it and spend some pennies. Get something you think they’ll really like. Rather than something you’ll like to make.

Josh Widdicombe sketch on homemade jam

Josh Widdicombe
“…I bought you a digital radio… it’s not a fair swap..”

Brilliant 😂

Homemade gifts are great, especially when you are good at the thing you are doing (ie knitting, soap making, etc) or it's personalized. My friend bakes for fun and she's really good at it, people love getting her cakes or cupcakes as gifts! I come up with homemade photo calendars quite often, works great around Christmas or New year!

but does anyone use a calendar anymore?

my poor parents get multiple ones every year of their grandchildren which hang unused whilst apple maintain their diaries.

Probably because it's a traditional way of preserving fruit and veg from the summer/autumn to use in the winter months and also a way to sort out Christmas presents early. Plenty of people do eat chutney or we wouldn't see so much of it in the supermarkets. Branston pickle and mango chutney are both types of chutney. A traditional ploughman's lunch always includes chutney or pickle.

We don't eat a vast amount of it but it's good in a cheese sandwich. If I genuinely didn't like it but had someone try to give me some I would find a polite way to say no. I don't see what's so hard about that. I don't think food banks would accept home-made chutney but there are food sharing apps where you could get rid of it.

Brownies would be an odd Christmas gift. Surely they have to be eaten very soon after making or they go stale? Christmas cake makes more sense as it keeps for months. Our Christmas cake is really more of a New Year cake as we don't even start it till the end of December generally, once all the mince pies have gone. I like having something like that in the house to cheer up the dreary days of early January.

I agree that gift givers should get something they genuinely believe the recipient will like or need or both. However, plenty of people who buy all their gifts do no such thing.

I've never got over the Christmas where my sil gave my children gifts that were all too clearly what was left at the bottom of the bargain bag of remaindered stuff from the Book People after she'd picked out the better stuff for her own family and friends. Not age appropriate, not in line with their interests, just tat, which went off to the charity shop straight after Christmas. Perfunctory, and really quite insulting.

I'd say that's just as bad as the person who makes 50 jars of jam or chutney and hands them out to all and sundry without the slightest idea of whether the recipient will eat it.

My parents used to give me The Archers calendar. We had it up in the kitchen. I am a diehard Archers fan and enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the text. We didn't use it as a calendar. Sadly, it's no longer made, so I don't have one this year.